Aerobic exercise is a popular form of exercise that improves one's cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure and providing other benefits to the human body. Aerobic exercise generally involves low intensity physical exertion over a long duration of time. Typically, the human body can adequately supply enough oxygen to meet the body's demands at the intensity levels involved with aerobic exercise. Popular forms of aerobic exercise include running, jogging, swimming, and cycling, among others activities. In contrast, anaerobic exercise typically involves high intensity exercises over a short duration of time. Popular forms of anaerobic exercise include strength training and short distance running.
Many choose to perform aerobic exercises indoors, such as in a gym or at home. Often, a user will use an aerobic exercise machine to have an aerobic workout indoors. One such type of aerobic exercise machine is a treadmill, which is a machine that has a running deck attached to a support frame. The running deck can support the weight of a person using the machine. The running deck incorporates a conveyor belt that is driven by a motor. A user can run or walk in place on the conveyor belt by running or walking at the conveyor belt's speed. The speed and other operations of the treadmill are generally controlled through a control module that is also attached to the support frame and is within a convenient reach of the user. The control module can include a display, buttons for increasing or decreasing a speed of the conveyor belt, controls for adjusting a tilt angle of the running deck, or other controls. Other popular exercise machines that allow a user to perform aerobic exercises indoors include ellipticals, rowing machines, stepper machines, and stationary bikes, to name a few.
One type of treadmill is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,245 issued to William T. Dalebout, et al. In this reference, an aerobic and anaerobic treadmill exercise system includes a treadmill apparatus, an independent upper body exercise apparatus and an independent lower body exercise apparatus. The independent upper body exercise apparatus and lower body exercise apparatus are integrally connected to the treadmill, forming a unified exercise apparatus system. The upper body exercise apparatus may comprise independently movable arms used in conjunction with the treadmill for push-pull exercises or for butterfly-type exercises, an arm lift exercise apparatus, or an overhead pull type exercise apparatus. The lower body exercise apparatus may be a pull type apparatus. An adjustable cable resistance system is interconnected to the independent upper exercise apparatus and lower body exercise apparatus. Another type of treadmill is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,398,529 issued to Joseph K. Ellis.